Poodle wrote:"The resolution of this image revealed features with a size of less than half a city block ...".

I hate it when that happens. I wonder how the editor responsible for that would feel if I described something as "two-thirds the size of a cricket pitch" or 112x40 Morris Dance capers.

Hello Norma. Nice to see you again.

Likewise, Poodle, likewise.And I wish I could help you. But of course, I have no idea whatever how the responsible editor would feel…Perhaps you can ask someone who simply knows things like that.. someone who might be privy to the editor's emotional landscape without knowing him personally. I like to imagine however, the pleased response of the editor were he to hear from you directly.And of course, I hope that you were able to glean at least some wheat from that (to me) wonderful article.Hope continues to spring eternal. Norma

"Two-thirds the size of a cricket pitch" is a much more accurate measurement than "less than half a city block". No editor at the NY Times would dare be that precise.

Now haven't I been the super-cranky termagant to even imply that this was not the most curiosity, fact driven, science emphatic Forum on the entire internet?So happy to be wrong….better overkill than no explanation at all. And certainly the more you know, the more you know.

Gord wrote:Termagant?? No one worships Termagant any more, NMB. But I suppose that's understandable, as no one ever really did in the first place.

Dipping into Wikipedia, eh? And with the speed of light.However I had nothing so grandiose as THE Termagant in mind.Just your ordinary, everyday, sharp -tongued female…Howzat? Better now? Pals? I, by the way, do not require worship, but… no apologies…I certainly like to have my back rubbed once in a while.And damn!! I surely do LOVE the occasional breakfast in bed. I am definitely human.

NMBP.S. Can we be friends again if I withdraw "termagant" entirely and replace it with "virago?"Or the equally secular "harridan?"

"Two-thirds the size of a cricket pitch" is a much more accurate measurement than "less than half a city block". No editor at the NY Times would dare be that precise.

I asked for that, being so loose in my terminology. Of course, I meant a cricket field. The size of such a thing is not defined anywhere within the rules of the game. The pitch, on the other hand, does have the dimensions you mention, but civilised people would define it as 22 yards by 10 feet, thus preventing the Frenchies from claiming to have invented the game.

Gord wrote:Termagant?? No one worships Termagant any more, NMB. But I suppose that's understandable, as no one ever really did in the first place.

Dipping into Wikipedia, eh? And with the speed of light.

No, I just like history and mythology. When someone a few years ago suggested Allah may have originally been a moon god with a wife and three daughters, I thought it might have something to do with the Termagant myth, but I never found out.

P.S. Can we be friends again if I withdraw "termagant" entirely and replace it with "virago?"Or the equally secular "harridan?"

Gord wrote:Termagant?? No one worships Termagant any more, NMB. But I suppose that's understandable, as no one ever really did in the first place.

Dipping into Wikipedia, eh? And with the speed of light.

No, I just like history and mythology. When someone a few years ago suggested Allah may have originally been a moon god with a wife and three daughters, I thought it might have something to do with the Termagant myth, but I never found out.

P.S. Can we be friends again if I withdraw "termagant" entirely and replace it with "virago?"Or the equally secular "harridan?"

NMB

I'll make you breakfast in bed if you replace it with "bitch".

Thanks… but I don't think so.

I'm absolutely certain you mean well, but given my druthers, I'd rather have a waiter than a waitress.

And then of course, I don't speak Hypochondria OR Whining, so communication would be a problem.

Again, you are too kind,But no mere translation program is capable of keeping up with your spectacular, even awe inspiring, facility in those languages. I am constantly aware of how much of substance and illumination I must have missed over the years.And the loss continues to pain me even as we speak.